Profit and Loss
- David Fairchild
- Jul 25, 2004
- Series: Philippians
Philippians 3:4-11
4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
INTRODUCTION
There are so many things in our lives that we assign high value to. There are so many things that capture our attention, our affection, our time and resources. There are so many things we elevate to a status of the highest importance and greatest value.
In my life there have been times that I felt I knew what was truly valuable. Once there was a time when I said that my career was truly valuable, so I gave it all my time and energy. Many of us believe that the amount of money you earn makes you valuable and so you work hard to try to get more of it. Some of you may feel that the attention of the opposite sex is important and valuable and so you do all that you can to better your physique and tan your skin and place yourself in social situations where you will be around as many people as possible. Some of you may feel the most important thing is to be respected for your intelligence, so you read as many books about important philosophical or theological questions and spend time discussing questions that have no answers. Some of you feel that if you don’t cuss, and if you don’t smoke, and if you don’t listen to secular music or watch “R” rated movies you’ll gain God’s respect as a righteous person. Some of you think that if you buy a nice house and have nice cars, and if you surround yourself with things that are valuable then you will become valuable. Some of us even thought that if we quickly grow this ministry we would be valuable to God and to others. We will be His “go-to” church. The church that He uses as an example of what a great church is supposed to look like. It is ironic that the things we view as valuable are so often fleeting and worthless and the things we disregard and ignore become our greatest treasures.
Painfully we realize in hindsight what we should have in the moment. My wife is always amazed at how right I think she is an hour after an argument, but how wrong she was in the midst of it.
I wasted so many years of my life on things that promised a great return on my investment of time and energy and yet those things yielded no lasting profit. For so many years I pushed myself beyond what I thought I could take. I denied myself certain things, or I indulged myself beyond what I knew was healthy because I honestly thought there would be value to what I was doing. There would be a payoff to my efforts, whether physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, or financially, I thought I would gain something.
I am convinced that we do the things we do because we honestly think it will bring us some benefit or value to us. For some of you that might be some form of physical benefit, whether it’s a momentary sensation or some desired emotion even if it’s temporary we pursue it because we have placed value to it for the benefit we think it brings us.
If someone wants to commit suicide it’s usually because they honestly think that dying would be better or more beneficial than living. They believe that the best thing for them is nonexistence. For someone that is stuck in a habitual sin, that sin gives them some benefit that they have placed as a higher value than doing what they know to be best for them. If someone is jealous, or is easily angered it’s because they have placed a value to something and they want to protect that thing that is valuable. So we do things that we know are morally, ethically, spiritually or physically destructive because it gives us a benefit, even if only for seconds, that we believe is valuable. If we abstain from certain things, often times it’s because we have placed a value on the feeling, or the reputation, or the respect we receive for not doing this or that. Rarely is it altruistic. Usually it is self-driven.
Even our spiritual activities are not immune to faulty value systems. Some of us find ourselves in situations where we are supposed to be serving God with a heart of gratitude and instead we do what we do so that God will give us something, or grant us favor, or hand us the desires of our heart. We serve Him and call it worship but the end of our worship is not Him, it is the thing we are seeking beyond Him. It becomes a worship of the things we want because our worship of God is nothing more than a means to an end, and that end is our own self-fulfillment.
Our hearts and our minds play tricks on us and tell us there are innumerable things that are valuable and important in our lives. Most often we have no idea we are drifting along with the changing tides of a value system built on sand. And the sad fact is that we are usually ignorant to the fact that our value system is itself bankrupt.
This morning I pray God helps us to fundamentally change our value system.
What is the feeling of the heart and the thinking of a person who has encountered the true and living Christ? This is the true thrust of message this morning. The last thing I desire is to bleed this text of all its significance for the cause of critical analysis. I want us to both know and feel this text.
I pray that God shows us through the testimony of the Apostle Paul what is truly valuable in this life and the next to come.
If I am a child of God, what should my value system look like? Let’s begin with the account of Paul’s conversion. This is important to consider because it gives us the framework to build upon in our text. What we read in Philippians 3:4-11 tells us what was going on in Paul’s mind and heart in Acts 9:1-9.
PAUL MEETS CHRIST
Acts 9:1-9
1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he journeyed he came near
Luke’s account doesn’t tell us the transformation of Paul mind and heart. This account does tell us that salvation is a sovereign act of God where He overtakes a heart of darkness with the light of His truth.
That day on the road to
As we read Philippians more carefully, we see that Paul talks about salvation as a transaction or exchanged. He uses terms that some of you may remember from your business classes. In verse 7 we see the crux of this entire passage. He says “But what things were gain (kerdos) to me, these I have counted loss (zemia) for Christ.” In the Greek the words literally mean profit and loss. He even says that these things he has “counted loss” which means to account for or reckon.
This Pharisee spent his entire life gathering what he thought was a personally earned righteousness which would give him favor in God’s sight. He assumed he could earn salvation. But when he met Christ, he realized that all those things that he thought profited him were actually in the loss column. He traded all of them for the righteousness that comes from God only on the basis of faith. This great exchange is what we are studying.
STUDY
Last week Paul blasted the Judaizers who were trying to subvert the Christians in
After he pokes them in the eye he tells them that Christians are the “true circumcision.”
Paul moves his argument with the Judaizers from spiritual to human comparisons. The heretics felt pretty righteous around gentiles in
Paul isn’t making a boast for his benefit, he is making a statement of fact so that he could counter his opponents’ position.
Paul goes on to tell them 7 things that he was once proud of. 7 things that he had placed in the profit column that now are considered worthless. Things that have never, and will never earn God’s favor.
Loss Column
SALVATION IS NOT BY: What is a loss?
Ritual
Verse 5a- circumcised the eighth day,
Paul literally says that he is an “eight dayer.” This would mean that he wasn’t someone, like many of the Judaizers, who came into the Jewish religion late. At the set time he had undergone the ritual that His Jewish fathers had undergone from the beginning. It was a ritual that initiated him into the covenant people of God.
But like the Judaizers he had forgotten that circumcision was suppose to show in a dramatic way how sinful we are and how much in need we need cleansing. Instead he made it a badge of his righteousness to boast about. He considers this essential rite a loss. He realized that salvation doesn’t come by any ritual or ceremony.
Whether it’s circumcision, the Roman Catholic mass, infant or adult baptism, or communion, none of these acts impress God and give us a privileged position before Him.
Race
Verse 5b- of the stock of
Paul rubs salt on the Judaizers wounds because many of them were previously gentiles which had converted to Judaism. Not Paul, he was a Jew by birth.
Paul was physically a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- a heritage that the Jewish people were proud of and relied on for salvation. But our racial heritage, like circumcision, is unable to save anyone. It has not profit before God. Even if you grow up singing “God bless
Many of us believe we are Christian because we were born in what was once called a “Christian nation.” For those that have held on to that view, you can no longer flaunt that card since this nation is now far from “Christian.” Having pride in our nation is of no value to our standing before God. The more we value our race above God’s grace, the worse our condition becomes.
Rank
Verse 5c- of the tribe of Benjamin,
Another of Paul’s impressive credentials which he placed value in was that he was a member of the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe was one of the most prominent and loyal of the 12 tribes. Benjamin was the younger of two sons born to Jacob’s wife Rachel.
He was also the last of Jacob’s sons to be born in the Promised Land. Saul was
When the kingdom split after Solomon’s death, only Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to the Dividic dynasty.
By the time Paul came along, most of the Jews had no idea which tribe the were part of because the dispersion had scattered them and they intermarried during their exile. Not Paul’s family. They had remained pure Benjamites. This elevated him to a higher rank that most of the Judaizers who probably had no idea what their tribal descent was. Paul realized his rank and tribe which he was so proud of did not impress God. The status of our family or the tribe we belong to has nothing to do with salvation.
Tradition
Verse 5d- a Hebrew of Hebrews;
The first three credentials on Paul’s resume had nothing to do with what Paul did, it was inherited from his parents. The last four are things that Paul himself accomplished.
He says that he was a “Hebrew of Hebrews” which could best be understood as a statement that as he grew from a boy to a man, Paul kept his family’s traditional Jewish heritage. Even though he was born in
Instead of becoming a Hellenized Jews (someone that assimilated into Greco-Roman culture), he left
Religion
Verse 5e- concerning the law, a Pharisee;
Paul became so zealous for Judaism that he became a Pharisee. To do this was to reach the highest level of devotion to your religion. The Pharisees were completely given to the law, from the Old Testament to all the traditions that had been added to it. It was the whole rabbinic system of laws and prescriptions that he followed.
Jesus said the Pharisees had substituted the law of God for their traditions. John "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
To be a Pharisee was to be one of only 6,000 Jews that held major influence in the lives of the Jews. They were highly respected, and feared for their outward keeping of the law to the letter.
Paul views his status as a Pharisee as nothing more than another loss. There is no Priest, no rabbi, no guru, no theological scholar, or no member of a religious group that can earn salvation through their religion.
Sincerity
Verse 6a- concerning zeal, persecuting the church;
Paul was so zealous and sincere in his faith that he even persecuted the
The Judaizers only tried to convert the church to their ways, Paul tried to destroy it by having men, women, and children thrown into prison and even murdered for their faith in Jesus.
Our world is full of people like this. It is full of people who are sincere in their beliefs and will make every effort or pay any price in their attempts to please God. They might be Jehovah’s Witnesses who knock on doors to please God. They might be Mormon’s who tithe and do good works to impress God, they might be Jews, Roman Catholics, or even people who call themselves Christians and attend church but do so out of a zeal that killed spiritual life instead of breathed it.
Legalism
Verse 6b- concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Paul seemed to have it all by outward appearance. He was a model Jew who lived by the Law. He kept his legalism so tightly that he could say he was found blameless from the outside.
He didn’t view all of these things as good and Jesus as better, he viewed all of his accomplishments as useless for salvation and a stench to God. He saw them as deadly because they deceived him into thinking that he was right with God. He had faith in himself and not in Jesus. He was proud of himself and not Jesus. He loved himself and not Jesus.
Verse 7- But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Profit Column
BENEFITS OF SALVATION: What do we gain?
Knowledge
Verses 8-9a- Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him,
This is not just some knowledge of propositional truth, this is knowing a person. It is not just know about truth, it is know truth and that truth is Christ Jesus.
It’s a bit different for me to say I know who George Bush is than it is to say I “know” George Bush. We aren’t to simply know facts about Jesus. We aren’t suppose to be able to only recount the history of the man Jesus. We are to “know” Him so intimately that we can say He is our friend, our brother, and our King and Lord.
He doesn’t just teach us a way, He is “the way.” He doesn’t talk to us about truth, He is “the truth.” He doesn’t tell us all about life, He is “the life.” We are to be so close to Him that we can say with honesty we know Him.
Paul says that everything that he once was so proud of he now knows it was rubbish (Gk. skubalon). The Greek for rubbish means excrement or manure. It means literally a pile of…., well you fill in the blank. And that’s what every other way or feeling or hope or work amounts to if it isn’t the righteousness of Jesus. It is dung and stinks.
God says so in Isaiah: Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
The word “filthy rags” literally means “filthy menstrual cloths” in Hebrew. Though it’s strong language we have to admit it drives home the point and view that God is making. Our efforts of self-righteousness amount to nothing more that being an obnoxious odor to God.
Righteousness
Verse 9b- not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
Trying to keep up your own righteousness is crushing and unbearable. Even though Paul did his best, he fell far short of God’s standard, which no one can meet. He was like the rest of human kind who “Not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).
Righteousness in the sight of God means to be in a right standing with Him. It means to have their sins transferred to Christ’s account and to have His perfection and righteousness transferred to our account. It means to stand before God in the confidence of Jesus and the humility of our awareness of our sin.
On Christ’s cross God judged Jesus as if He had personally committed every sin ever committed by every person who truly believes. When someone that is a sinner clings to Jesus as their Lord and trusts only in Him and His sacrifice for their sin, God treats that sinner as if he lived Christ’s sinless life.
Power
Verse 10a- that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,
The initial saving work of Christ became the energy of Paul’s pursuit of a deeper knowledge of his Savior. Paul longed to experience the power of His resurrection.
He knew there was no power in the Law. He also knew there was no power in the flesh to overcome sin. But He knew Christ’s power to save and his power that raised Jesus from the dead.
His resurrection was the greatest display of Christ’s power. Paul experienced it in two ways. First, it was the power that saved him, but more than that it is Christ’s resurrection power that sanctified him to remain obedient to God and to defeat temptation and trials. Paul gladly exchanged his impotence for Christ’s resurrection power and wanted more of it.
Fellowship
Verse 10b- and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Paul had a deep communion and fellowship with Christ in suffering. When he met Christ, Paul gained a companion to be with him in his suffering, One who endured far more intense persecution and suffering than anyone else who ever lived, all of it undeserved.
The deepest moments of our fellowship with the living Christ are at times of intense suffering. This suffering drives us to Him and we find a merciful High Priest, a faithful friend who feels our pain, and a sympathetic companion who faced all the trials and temptations we face.
Glory
Verse 11- if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.The final benefit and profit is our day when we are brought into glory and meet Christ face to face. It is was we long for as His followers and believers. What do we gain by our union in Christ? Knowledge and identity in Him; the righteousness of Christ given to us, the power of Christ for our sanctification, participation in the sufferings of Christ; and sharing Christ’s glory in our glorification.
Turn with me to Matthew 19:20 to see a different response to the living Christ than Paul had.
Matthew 19:16-22- Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" 17 So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 19 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" 20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Everyone one of us stands at the same crossroads. We can cling to our religious credits and follow the rich you man into destruction. Or we can count it all loss for the surpassing benefit of knowing Christ and follow Paul onto the narrow path that leads to eternal life.
There are two schools of thought that seek to teach you their ways. On the one hand, some think the way to rid yourself of your misery and wretchedness is to glory in the pride of your intelligence, in the freedom of your mind, and in the height of your great mental accomplishments. On the other hand, you are lowered to the level of the beast. You amount to nothing more than evolved simple cells, which through impersonal time and random chance mutated and over time became slime which eventually crawled to the land and through natural selection became a monkey of which you are closest in features and similar in action, much to the insult of the monkey.
These schools have either elevated you beyond what God has made you or lowered you below what you were intended to be; the Imago Dei, the image of God. Created to feel, to love, to think and to find your greatest joy and peace in worshipping the One true God who created you solely for that purpose. The hollowing out of ourselves that causes our soul to despair, that infinite void of empty conceit or self-loathing will never be filled in the finite, its deepest longing is filled only with the infinite and personal God which satisfies the thirst of a parched and weary soul.
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